


The Calico Job

by one_true_houselight



Category: Leverage
Genre: Cuddling, Domestic, Fluff, LEVERAGE IS A SHOW ABOUT LOVE, Multi, and family, i love them, they adopt a cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:53:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28244979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/one_true_houselight/pseuds/one_true_houselight
Summary: The OT3 finds a cat in their alley.
Relationships: Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer
Comments: 6
Kudos: 38
Collections: 2020 Leverage Secret Santa Exchange





	The Calico Job

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Enikawa_Moriko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enikawa_Moriko/gifts).



> Happy Holidays!

It was one of the mornings where all three current members of Leverage had all ended up in bed together when Parker woke up and saw the cat on their window ledge. It looked like someone had spilled brown and black ink over a white cat, and its eyes were two different colors; one green, one blue. 

Parker had just managed to process these details when the cat turned around and leaped off the ledge, out of view. She looked down at Hardison's arm draped over her and Eliot's head on her shoulder, and carefully started to untangle herself. In most situations this would be easier, she reflected as she balanced on the headboard. But most situations didn't require her to take the comfort of her two partners into account, so she smiled and flipped neatly onto the floor next to the bed. She padded over to the window and scanned around, looking for the cat. She finally saw a small white shape make its way into the alley next to the Brewery. As she considered going downstairs to meet it, Hardison started muttering behind her.

"Parker," he mumbled, head half buried in blankets. "Come back. You're warm." Parker smiled and went over, tapping Hardison's side through the blankets to get him to scootch over. He obliged, rolling over almost on top of Eliot, who grunted. 

"What time is it-" Eliot was interrupted by his phone's alarm, a strange little melody echoing through the bedroom. He rolled over and reached for his phone, only partially impeded by Hardison grabbing his other hand. "Quit it, I've gotta go start opening the kitchen."

"But I don't want to get up yet."

"Well, you don't have to."

"But I'll miss you." Eliot snorted a little, but his smile was soft as he squeezed Hardison's hand before pulling away. 

As Eliot got dressed, Hardison turned to look at Parker. "What were you looking at?"

"There was a cat out our window." She remembered it disappearing down the alley and sprang up, pulling Hardison with her. "It's next to the Brewery now, I think, let's go!" 

"Let me put a shirt on." Hardison untangled himself from the blankets and grabbed a shirt as Parker bounced impatiently at the door. Once he joined her, she led him to the alley. 

"It was a calico cat," she explained, scanning around. "It had two different colored eyes." Hardison started making _spspspspsp_ sounds, and before long, the cat emerged from behind a dumpster. 

"Aw, she is kinda cute," said Hardison, leaning down as the cat hesitantly looked at him and Parker. 

Parker slowly stood up and headed for the door. "I'm gonna get some food. You keep her calm. Use NLP or whatever."

As Parker vanished, Hardison, without taking his eyes off the cat, hissed, "You can't use neuro-linguistic programming on a _cat_ , Parker." She ignored him, and made her way into the kitchen, where Eliot was prepping things. 

"Eliot, what do cats eat? Like fish, yeah?"

He looked up at her, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"There's a cat in the alley! She-"

"Parker, it's not good to feed strays unless you want to keep them around-"

"Oooh, I'd love to have a cat!"

"That's not what I meant." Eliot sighed. "We don't know it's a stray. It could just be an irresponsible pet owner's." 

"It's a stray. I can tell, its eyes are lonely." She looked serious at this, and Eliot had a feeling she wasn't going to accept 'you can't look into a cat's eyes and know their life story' as an answer. So he nodded and went into the cabinet, pulling a can of cat food from the depths. Parker's eyes widened. "I thought you said we shouldn't feed cats!"

"I only do it during winter, when they're desperate," muttered Eliot. He tried handing it to her, but she instead grabbed his hand, dragging him towards the alley.

"You have to see her!" He tried making half-assed excuses about needing to prep, but they both knew he was coming to see the cat. Before he could be dragged the full way, though, he snagged a can opener from the counter.

Soon, the three knelt in the alley, an open can of food pushed towards the cat. "See, Eliot," whispered Parker, watching the cat consider the can. "She needs us!"

"She doesn't have a collar," conceded Eliot. "And she's thinner than you'd expect a house cat to be."

"We could bring her in. To see if she has a microchip," said Hardison.

"Check if she's spayed. Then _maybe_ talk about keeping her." Parker bounced a little bit, and they watched as the cat, as if it had been listening, walked up to the can and started eating. 

~~~~

After a cat carrier had been acquired (along with some other cat accessories, Parker insisting it didn't have to be for _this_ cat), they started trying to capture the cat. Over the next few days, they tried every capture pattern in the book, all thwarted. After one particularly egregious failure, they sat on the couch, Parker helping put a bandage on Eliot's scratched hand. 

"Dammit Hardison, why'd you have to have your legs so far apart?"

"I wanted a wide stance, so she couldn't unbalance me."

"She's a cat, she's not gonna-"

"Besides, I'm not the renowned fighter who got scratched up bad enough to yell and scare her!"

"I can't suplex her! I'm not gonna fight, and I cannot stress this enough, _a cat_."

"She's just nervous," said Parker, finishing up Eliot's hand. "When we met, I would've scratched you two if I could have." Hardison and Eliot stared at her. "What? We both need our distance sometimes!" 

"Well, with that kinda disturbing idea out of the way," said Hardison, "What's our next plan?"

"I don't know if there is one," muttered Eliot. "If she doesn't want to go, there isn't a lot we can do-"

"No!" Eliot and Hardison jumped at Parker's exclamation. "We have to keep trying. She's fine with us, she's just scared. She'll eat with us, and she even rubbed up on our legs that one time-"

"That's fine, but if we can't get her to get in the crate-"

"We can't just give up on her."

Hardison leaned over and put a hand on Parker's shoulder. "Parker, this isn't like a- this isn't like you."

Eliot, catching on, added, "We chose you, and you know that, we can tell you that. We can't explain to her that we just want to help."

As Parker sat there, she realized that they were right: she saw herself in this cat, as she frequently did in lonely kids, and had started taking things personally. It happened, sometimes, even now that she had found stability. "You're right. I'm sorry, I'm being silly-"

"No, no. It's fine, Parker. We just didn't want you to fall too far down the rabbit hole." Parker grabbed them both and hugged them. Hardison continued, "Let's leave this be for the night. We should rest." She nodded, and they all curled up together. At some point, a movie was turned on, and they were all asleep before it was over. 

~~~~

Parker woke up there, tangled in her partners' arms. From the light coming in the window, it was just after sunrise. She lay there for a while, watching the sunlight creep into the room, before carefully extracting herself once again from the couch. Her eyes fell on the cat carrier, and she decided to try something. She picked it up, looking inside at the folded up blanket, the stuffed mouse, and went outside. 

She sat on the steps, carrier next to her, and started calling for the cat. Soon, a familiar head poked around the corner, and Parker smiled as the cat made its way over to her, still keeping its distance. 

"Hi," said Parker. The cat regarded her. "I know you don't understand me, not fully, but...I was alone too, for a lot of my life. And me and my family want to help you." She picked up the stuffed mouse and waved it at the cat before placing it back in the cat carrier. "So if you could go hang out with the weird mouse friend, we can do that. I know you like your distance, so do I. So…" She stood up, and slowly blinked at the cat. She had looked up 'NLP for cats', much to Hardison's chagrin, and had eventually landed on that gesture as the closest thing. "Please trust us." 

She then went inside, casting one last look back to see the cat with its head tilted at her. The door closed, and Parker went in and waited. 

Eliot woke up about an hour later, his movements quickly pulling Hardison into consciousness as well. They both looked up to see Parker grinning, holding a cat carrier containing a folded up blanket, a stuffed mouse, and a curious calico cat. "Time to go to the vet!"

"How the hell-"

"I think we should name her Lock Pick."

"We're not naming our cat Lock Pick."

"Why not?"

"Oh, ya know, I don't think, as a secret thieving organization, we should name our cat Lock Pick."

"So you're saying she is our cat?"

"At this point," said Eliot, sitting up, "I don't think we have a choice." As Parker grinned, he added, "I agree with Hardison, though. Not Lock Pick."

"Fine. Maybe something to do with the brew pub, she can be the mascot-"

"We don't need a mascot, Parker."

They kept arguing as the two guys got ready, and soon they made their way to the van, the last thing said before the doors swung shut was Eliot going, "She will not hang out with customers, Parker."

~~~~

The customers loved her, of course. A few days after she came home, someone saw her peeking out from the back room and begged the chef to meet her. Eliot, with much grumbling, acquiesced, and Parker brought her out on her leash (she loved going for walks), and quickly became a neighborhood sensation. 

"What's her name?" asked one patron, scratching the cat's head. 

"Oh, we haven't decided yet. Though I came up with a great idea-"

From the kitchen, Eliot yelled, "We're not naming the cat Steranko!" Parker shrugged. 

"She knows we love her and will take care of her. The name can come later."

"Aw, that's so sweet."

At that point, Hardison poked his head out from the back room. "Parker, Eliot, we've got something." Parker nodded, and the customer handed the cat back. She made the cat wave at the customer before heading to the back room. 

"The cat and the cat burglar are here!" she announced, holding the cat up to Hardison. 

"The cat's not coming on the job with us," warned Eliot, flipping a towel over his shoulder as he walked in. 

"But I've been working on making her a little harness!"

" _No_ "

"Well, actually," said Hardison, fighting a grin, "She might actually be-"

"Oh, is she gonna be the grifter? Are we gonna name her Sophie?" Eliot stopped and considered what he'd said.

Parker gasped. "That's such a good name!

"It's not bad," agreed Hardison. 

Eliot smiled. "I like it. Sophie." HIs smile vanished. "But she's not the grifter. That was a joke."

"Oh sure, of course."

"Hardison-"

Parker plopped down on the couch, the newly named Sophie in her lap. "I wonder what Human Sophie will think."

"I know she won't like being called 'Human Sophie'."

"Too late, her contact info is already changed."

"Alright, can we start the briefing now?" asked Hardison, picking up the remote and waving it at the others. Sophie batted at it. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Now make sure you pay attention," said Parker to Sophie. "I want you to do good on your first job."

~~~~

Luckily for Eliot's blood pressure, Sophie did not accompany them on the job. Hardison _claimed_ it was only because the mark's executive assistant was allergic, but either way, they made sure to leave Sophie plenty of food and toys. Parker was a little worried Sophie would be lonely and wanted to video chat with her. 

"She doesn't know to go to the screen, Parker."

"Then we'll train her." 

"How do you want to train a cat to operate a computer?"

"Hardison can make a big button for her, and we can have a light-"

"Y'all, the mark's on his way."

"We'll figure it out when we get home." Eliot rolled his eyes as he pulled on his gloves, but there was an unmistakable smile on his face. 

A week and another toppled white collar criminal later, the team came back to the brew pub. It was late, so they were quiet as they came home, dropping bags in corners to be taken care of later. A small white shape on the couch poked her head up and, upon seeing them, ran over and nuzzled all of them, purring. 

Hardison picked her up, murmuring, "Did you miss us?" Sophie meowed back and headbutted his shoulder, which was answer enough. 

That night, there were four bodies in bed, curled up and tangled in one another. All of them had run from loneliness and had found themselves, one way or another, here, together. Love was a choice, and they chose it enthusiastically each day.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm one-true-houselight on tumblr, come hang out!


End file.
